Description

You have to get up in order to get down. And, not surprisingly, modern trail bikes clearly illustrate that point. For this reason, Fox Racing Shox built the 34 Talas 26in 160 FIT CTD with Trail Adjust Fork. The Talas spring enables you to lower the fork 30mm for more precise climbing, but when you're at the top, you'll have the full 160mm of plush travel on tap for the ride back down.

Like recent generations of Fox's Factory series forks, the Talas 160 controls its stroke with the venerable FIT damper. As you may have guessed, 'FIT' is an acronym, and it stands for Fox Isolated Technology. And, unlike a traditional open bath system, FIT means that the damper fluid is sealed in an air-tight bladder. This prevents contamination, which improves the consistency of the damper on long descents.

Long-time Fox riders will immediately notice Fox's Climb, Trail, Descend damper adjustments. And there's no need to worry, you're still getting the same adjustments to high- and low-speed compression, only its now packaged in a more user-friendly format. Climb mode provides the most damping for a near locked-out feel. Meanwhile, it still provides a bit of cushion for any unexpected hard hits. Click the damper into the Trail mode, and you'll find that there's ample low-speed compression in order to keep the fork riding high in the travel through berms, jumps, and rocks. Better yet, it still provides plenty of compliance in order to smooth out the ride. Trail mode has three sub-settings that allow you to tune exactly how much feedback that you need from your suspension. And, as you may have guessed, Descend mode provides the lightest compression damping for a plush ride.

Talas is short for Travel Adjust Linear Air Spring, and the ability to reduce the travel and fork height for climbing is what sets the Talas line apart from the Float line. This version of Fox's Talas spring sees some updates that cater to aggressive riding styles. Specifically, there's now a progressive ramp-up added to the end of the stroke, which helps to resist bottoming. And like previous generations, you're able to lower the fork 30mm, from 160mm to 130. So, you're able to expect this to steepen your head tube angle by about a degree, while lowering your bottom bracket roughly a half-inch. These geometry changes avoid low-speed handlebar flop, which aids in the climbing ability of modern long-travel trail bikes.

The 34 Talas 160 comes with Kashima coated stanchions. And, in addition to being 100% gold'er than the competition, the Kashima coating is harder than standard stanchion coatings. This equates to a longer wear life, as well as smoother suspension action.

The 34 chassis is brand new to Fox lineup, and it fills an obvious gap. Splitting the difference between the light weight of the 32 chassis, and the bombproof reliability of the 36 series, the 34 is built as a perfect companion to the latest generation of aggressive use trail bikes. At just over four pounds, this fork is no heavyweight. Better yet, it's built to ride rough trails day in and day out. That's thanks in part to the massive tapered steerer tube, which fights flex, especially under hard braking. And speaking of stiffness, Fox uses Shimano's 15mm QR axle assembly, which provides both added stiffness and increased security over a traditional 9mm QR skewer.

The Fox Racing Shox 34 Talas 26in 160 FIT CTD with Trail Adjust Fork is available in the color Black and with a 1.5-inch tapered steerer tube. Please note that this fork is only compatible with 26-inch wheels and 15QR thru-axles.